My journey with the tasco 11t

[Derivious (Tyrone)]

Hi there I'm quite new to astronomy and when I started I knew virtually nothing. I have always wanted a scope but the whole funds/ what one do you get saga combined with life always stopped me from finding time to get one.
One day I was on gumtree and saw this ad marked telescope. It had no details at all and all the pictures were of some big dusty "cobwebby" red tube. It was $20 and not to far away. I rang the the number and asked the guy seriously only twenty bucks, does it still work? I'll never forget his response. In an instant loud and almost furious tone he said " of course it works, it's a telescope how could it possibly not work?! So I went for a drive and picked it up. I got it home and began trying to set it up. I had never seen a netonian reflector before and had only ever used a few refractors when I was young. I cleaned it up and did some research on it. I ironically found a thread in iceinspace that helped me learn what it was. (Thanks again guys) my first focused shot of the moon (20mm lens) took my breath away it was way better than any refractor I had ever used. I then played around with the other lenses and the barlow and quickly fell in love with this tasco. After a few months I had gotten quite used to the adjustments and decided to go planet hunting.
If you all recall, last year jupiter and venus were sort of lining up thus even a newbie such as my self could hit them easily. I have always loved jupiter and seeing it for the first time with it's moons and cloud bands (no gws sadly) made me realise what this scope could do.

Then it broke.
The vertical fine tuning thread had stripped, my scope sat away for a few months after this. My mate who is a fitter/turner showed me what i needed to repair it and told me me was quite easy to, hilariously enough the kit i needed i actually sold at my own work, doh! After about ten minutes of threading it was now fixed and ten times stronger than before.
At this stage only saturn was visible but it did not disapoint, you may have seen my images or videos.

After more research i decided i needed to begin getting more eyepieces. I bought a nice 9mm plossle but shortly discovered my scope is the old 0.965. I soon ordered an adapter but soon realised why optical stores don't stock them. It was impossible to focus, i assume the travel is to short to get it's position. I have now ordered a new focuser and look forward to when it arrives. Sadly all my old 0.965 pieces will be useless so i may have to order the reverse of the adapter i foolishly bought. In the meanwhile i have taken off most of it's rust, lubricated it's gearing and have painted all it's legs and stuff.

I look forward to when it's fully complete and working to it's full potential.
It's a happy tale of an old scope finding a new home.
It's my tale of the tasco 11t

[Derivious (Tyrone)]

This was ment to upload before

[BeanerSA (Paul)]

What sort of focusser did you order?

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

I had one of these as well , found it in Cash converters in Darwin , $40 is all I payed for it , and yes they do give a very good image .
It compared to my Takahashi FS60C very well on the moon , a bit brighter and was much better on deep sky .

All you have to do is drill 3 new holes about 30mm above the original ones that hold the primary mirror and move it up to that new position , then you can use the original focucer and .965 - 1 1/4 adaptor and if you are accurate with your measuring and drilling it wont be hard to collimate it again .

I also see the mount , an EQ2 is set in Alt/Az mode , you can also set it to your latitude and use it equatorally , a great feature with these mounts .
Do you have the shaft and counter weight ?

Good find , this will last you a long time .

Brian.

[Derivious (Tyrone)]

Originally Posted by BeanerSA

What sort of focusser did you order?

Just a standard one off ebay. It said to suit 4.5"

[Derivious (Tyrone)]

Originally Posted by brian nordstrom

I had one of these as well , found it in Cash converters in Darwin , $40 is all I payed for it , and yes they do give a very good image .
It compared to my Takahashi FS60C very well on the moon , a bit brighter and was much better on deep sky .

All you have to do is drill 3 new holes about 30mm above the original ones that hold the primary mirror and move it up to that new position , then you can use the original focucer and .965 - 1 1/4 adaptor and if you are accurate with your measuring and drilling it wont be hard to collimate it again .

I also see the mount , an EQ2 is set in Alt/Az mode , you can also set it to your latitude and use it equatorally , a great feature with these mounts .
Do you have the shaft and counter weight ?

Good find , this will last you a long time .
Brian.

Thanks mate, i did find the mount EG2 you say, was able to be in many positions. i set it to this mode the alt/az mode after being curious as to why one of the dials did nothing.
Sadly it is this mode that puts huge stress on the vertical fine tuning and was how it broke the first time. it was pretty crumbled the thread from years of being in a shed. it looks pretty good now i painted it, and the cast dials look really antique almost.

[BeanerSA (Paul)]

Originally Posted by Derivious

Just a standard one off ebay. It said to suit 4.5"

One like this? http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-5-or-6-Tel...-/360936594869

[Derivious (Tyrone)]

Originally Posted by BeanerSA

One like this? http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-5-or-6-Tel...-/360936594869

yep, pretty much that exact one

[Derivious (Tyrone)]

Originally Posted by brian nordstrom

I had one of these as well , found it in Cash converters in Darwin , $40 is all I payed for it , and yes they do give a very good image .
It compared to my Takahashi FS60C very well on the moon , a bit brighter and was much better on deep sky .

All you have to do is drill 3 new holes about 30mm above the original ones that hold the primary mirror and move it up to that new position , then you can use the original focucer and .965 - 1 1/4 adaptor and if you are accurate with your measuring and drilling it wont be hard to collimate it again .

I also see the mount , an EQ2 is set in Alt/Az mode , you can also set it to your latitude and use it equatorally , a great feature with these mounts .
Do you have the shaft and counter weight ?

Good find , this will last you a long time .

Brian.

Shaft and counter weight? No sorry i did think something was missing. Seems to work ok in this mode but perhaps that's why other modes don't seem to work.

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Ah, the good ol' 4.5" f8 Newt. Yep, started the same way, bought on trademe, I won it on $40 but when I saw it gave him $50. It was paint splattered and no EPs but my first look at Cru and the clusters was mind blowing. later on 47 Tuc was an awesome sight and then the planets and M42 appeared.
I've been taking the tablets since then but it seems incurable ....